30.6.07

MICHAEL WHITE LATEST

Back to the Michael White story - you'll recall he was not allowed to play in the Shanghai Masterrs because he was still 15 when the qualifiers began (his 16th birthday is next week).

I was privately told yesterday by a WPBSA official that the constitution was changed in 2001 specifically precluding anyone under the age of 16 from competing as a professional. Shaun Murphy, you'll recall, did so at 15 in 1998.

I have no memory of this but have no reason not to believe the person who told me.

An EGM would have been required to change the constitution. I can't find a press release announcing the change and, trawling through the archive on worldsnooker.com, there appears to be no mention there either.

However, if indeed it is enshrined in the WPBSA constitution then another EGM would have been needed for White to play.

I was not told all this when I made an official enquiry last week, which is why there was no mention of it on my post here or in the story we've run in the new issue of Snooker Scene.